How To Create Successful Leadership Development Programs To Retain Top Talent
High potentials form the backbone of a leadership program run by an organization. With the evolution of business leaders, expectations from leadership development programs have grown exponentially. Every organization understands that they need the smartest and wisest of leaders to bring their business at the forefront.
In a recent survey, more than 1,000 senior-level business leaders expressed that their top two concerns for the coming year were developing "Next Gen" leaders and the failure to attract/retain top talent [1]. For organizations that do not have a program to develop and promote high potentials into their aspiring roles, then now is the time to consider their succession plan and impact on the future of the business. What’s more important is to devise a leadership plan that caters to your current and future business requirements. Let’s dig deep into the approaches that can ensure that your leadership and development plans create leaders whose career goals are closely aligned to the business’.
Use An Agile Approach
An agile mindset ensures a smooth transition and quality output to identify the right pool of talent with the right skills. This prepares high potentials to embrace challenges, operate fluidly and communicate openly to build a successful foundational transition. It is necessary to align business core values with your leadership program agenda to facilitate participants’ transformation through the journey.
Focus Future Leadership Requirements
The future of leadership development revolves around the ability to create informal and formal networks and boundaries. The core concept of leadership continues to flatten as it is required at all levels of an organization. It is no longer considered superior, rather a decision-making role during crunch situations. Furthermore, functional knowledge foundation and strategic business thinking continue to be the key to success at all levels.
Develop Mindset Over Skillset
Placing high potentials challenging opportunities make them exercise wisdom, challenge the status quo and envision the complex interdependence. A robust leadership program must allow high-potential talent to adapt to dynamic business challenges and foster their abilities to thrive amid change. With an aim to focus on how people think, feel, act and operate, leaders need to position themselves at the edge of their comfort zone and think beyond existing challenges.
Gain Executive Sponsorship
For any leadership development program, teams need to ensure that senior leaders are on board and support the growth of high potentials. This gives a great boost to participants’ confidence, observing the momentum that the program has gained with the engagement of leaders. Such all-round efforts from participants and committed leaders make your program authentic and sustainable.
Develop A Dynamic Network
Leadership networking leverages relationships to strengthen partnerships in service to achieve organizational mission and vision. It goes way beyond knowing someone but weighs connections to identify the right solutions and create opportunities. This enables leaders to develop skills that manage conflicts and find points of mutual agreement.
While carrying out a leadership development program, this is needed to be understood that one size doesn’t fit all. Each individual has a specific attribute and your plans are supposed to be tailor-made to develop those skills. To better understand what a high-potential talent demands, read the eBook Life Cycle Of High-Potential Employees that explains why personal traits play a significant role in establishing someone as a leader.
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